Orchestra de Notias

Group (1920s – 1930s) 

Orchestra de Notias was one of several Cape Verdean groups that existed in the United States in the 1920s/1930s. Its leader was the violinist Cândido Almeida, “Notias”.  

Between 1929 and 1935, three groups formed by Cape Verdeans made a set of forty recordings at the Columbia studios in New York, and the Orchestra of Notias was one of them (the other two were: Abrew’s Portuguese Instrumental Trio and Johnny Perry’s Portuguese Criolo Trio).  

Richard Spottswood, researcher of the music of immigrant communities in the U.S.A., in his book Ethnic music on records: A discography of ethnic recordings produced in the United States, 1893 to 1942 (1990), lists the recordings made by the Orchestra de Notias, which are the following: “Rivera Bote”, “Souvenir de um Carnival”, “Mal d’ amor”, “Cidad de Mindello-polka” (recordings of October of 1930), and with date of July of 1931, the mornas “Serafim João”, “Mar de lua cheia”, “Maria D’Laide” and “A morna”; the waltz “Vapor Riamento”; the polkas “Cidade da Praia” and “Fazenda S. Martinho” and “O Perfume de Brava”, this last one with no specification on the musical genre.  

In the compilation Portuguese string music (1989), which brings together some of these recordings, the Orchestra de Notias appears with “Cidad De Mindello-polka”.  

Other recordings by Orchestra de Notias, dated June 1935, accompany the singers Maria Teresa and Otília Gonsalves, in the songs “Maria Jalanga”, “Nhô Mané Valentin”, “Salta gato” and “O Lobo”. These recordings appear in the book of Spottswood in the name of Cândida Almeida and with the indication that they are vocal interpretation, while the previous ones were always instrumental. It is also a record by Orchestra de Notias, in this case with those two vocalists, as shown in the publicity in the Massachusetts press.  Some confusion with Cândido Almeida’s name would have generated such inaccuracy.  

The romance Capitão de Mar e Terra, by Henrique Teixeira de Sousa (1984), whose action takes place in 1938, talks about Notias and his orchestra playing at a Carnival ball with their violin and guitars. 

Discography  

• Riviera Bote/Souvenir de um Carnival, 78 rotations, Columbia Records, New York, 1930. 
• Mal d’ amor/Cidad de Mindello-polka, 78 rotations, Columbia Records, New York, 1930. 
• Serafim João/ Vapor Riamento, 78 rotations, Columbia Records, New York, 1931. 
• Mar de lua cheia/ Cidade da Praia, 78 rotations, Columbia Records, New York, 1931. 
• Fazenda S. Martinho/O Perfume de Brava, 78 rotations, Columbia Records, New York, 1931. 
• Maria D’Laide/ A morna, 78 rotations, Columbia Records, New York, 1931. 
• Nho Mané Valentim/O lobo, 78 rotations, Aurora/António T. Lemos, Mt. Vernon, New York, 1935. 
• Saltá gato/Maria Jalanga, 78 rotations, Aurora/António T. Lemos, Mt. Vernon, New York, 1935. 
• Portuguese string music (coletânea), CD, HT CD 05, Interstate Music Ltd. Crawley (UK), 1989. 

Listen to

Thanks to Ron Barboza, Francisco V. Sequeira and Joaquim Saial for their collaboration in the research.